Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-10-22

remember SkeptlclSni always mas
some reason, good or bad. for existing.
GoETHE's
irreligion started when the news came
to Germany of the earthquake at Lis
bon, November /, 1875 That sixty
thousand people should have persisted
in that earthquake and in the after
rising of the Tagus river so stirred his
sympathies that he threw up his belief
in the goodness of God.
Others have gone into skepticism
from a natural persistence in asking
the reason why. They have been fear
fully stabbed Of the Interrogation point.
There are so many things they canno
get explained. They cannot under
stand the Trinity or how God can be
sovereign and yet man a tree agent.
Neither a l They say: IL don't
understand why a good God should
have let sin come into the world
Neither do l. You say: "Why was
that child started in life with such dis
advantages, while others have all phys.
ical and mental equipmentP l cannet
tell. They 90 out of church on Easter
morning and say: That doctrine of
the resurrection COMPOUNDED me-" So
it is to me a mystery beyond unravel.
ment. l understand ill the processes
by which men get into the dark. l
| know them all. l have travelled with
burning feet that blistered way. The
first word that children learn to utter
is generally papa and mamma. / think
the first word l ever uttered was
"whyp" l know what it is to have a
hundred midnigths pour their darkness
into one hour. Such men are net to be
scoffed at but helped. Turn your back
upon
A DROWNING MAN
when you have the rope with which to
pull him ashore, and let that woman in
the third story Of a house perish in the
flames when you have a ladder with
which to help her out, help Der down
rather than turn your back scoffingly
on a sceptic whose soul is in more peril
than the bodies of those other endan-
gered ones possibly can be. Oh, skep-
ticism is a dark land. There are men
in this house who would give a thou
sand worlds, if they possessed them, to
get back to the placid faith of their
fathers and mothes, and it is our place
to help them. and we may help them
never through their heads, but always
through their hearts. These skeptics,
when brought to Jesus, will be nightly
affected, far more SO than those who
never examined the evidences of Chris
tianity. Thomas Chalmers was once u
skeptic, Robert Hall a skeptic, Robert
Newton a skeptic, Christmas Evans a
skeptic. But when once with strong
hand they took hold of the chariot of
the Gospel, they rolled it ON with what
momentum! If l address such men
and women to-day, l throw out no
scott. implead them by the memory
of the good old days when at their
MOTHERS KNEE
they said: Nov l lay me down to
sleep" and by those days and nights
OF scarlet fever in which she watched
you. giving you the medicine at just
the right time, and turning your pill
low when it was hot, and with hands
that many years ago turned to dust,
soothed away your pam, and with voice
that you will never hear again, unless
you join her in the better country, tsld
you to mind for you would feel
better by-and-by, and by that dying
couch where she looked so pale and
talked SO slowly, catching her breath
between the words, and you felt an
awful loneliness coming over your soul;
by all that. l beg you to come back
and take the same religion. 1t was
good enough for her. 1t is good
enough for you. Nay, l have a better
plea than that. / plead by all tho
wounds, and tears, and blood, and
groans, and agonies, and death throes
of the Son of God, who approaches
you this moment with torn brow. and
lacerated hand, and whipped back, and
saying: Come unto me, all We who
are weary and heavy laden, and 1 will
give you rest"
A FIELD OF USEFULNESS.
Again, there is a field of usefulness
but little touched occupied by those
who are astray in their habits. All
northern nations, like those of North
America, and England and Scotland,
that is, in the colder climates, are
devastated by alcoholism. They take
the fire to keep up the warmth. In
southern countries, like Arabia and
Spain, the blood is so they are no
tempted to fiery liquids. The great
Roman armies never drank anything
stronger than water tinged with vine
gar, but under IL northern climate
the temptation to heating stimulants is
most mighty, and millions succumb.
When a man goes wrong the church
drops him, the social circle drops him,
good influence drops him, we all drop
him. OF all the men who get off the
track but few ever get on again. Near
my summer residence there is a lie
saving station on the beach There
are all the ropes and rockets, the boats,
the machinery for getting people of
shipwrecks. Summer before last | saw
there fifteen or twenty men who were
breakfastlng, after having just escaped
with their lives and nothing more. Up
and down our coasts are bnilt these